Please turn with me in your scriptures to Proverbs chapter one. And if you'll please stand, I will read in your hearing from chapter one. I'm going to start at verse 20. where we began last week, and read through verse 27. Hear this, the very word of Almighty God, holy, infallible, and errant in all its parts. This is God's very word. Proverbs chapter one and verse 20. Wisdom calls aloud outside. She raises her voice in the open squares. She cries out in the chief concourses. At the openings of the gates in the city, she speaks her words. How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge. Turn at my rebuke. Surely I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make my words known to you. Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, because you disdained all my counsel and would have none of my rebuke. I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your terror comes, when your terror comes like a storm and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Thus ends the reading of God's holy word. Let us ask his blessing upon it. Most Holy Father, we pray that this, the living word, will be true nourishment to us. Give us understanding as we seek to be made wise by your word. Give us ears to hear and eyes to see. We ask this for the glory of the one in whom all the treasures of wisdom resides, even our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. You may be seated. In this portion of scripture, as we took it up last week, remember we have wisdom personified. Remember that personification is a poetic device in which something abstract is represented in a human form or as a person. in order to highlight it and draw attention to it. And with those poetic devices, grab our attention with this unique use of language and teach us more powerfully. Wisdom, you'll recall, is an attribute of God. As we introduced our study, we saw that by wisdom, God created the world and he built into his created order into his creation, his wisdom in such a way that we should see it and be called to it as his human creatures that bear his image. God's design for us is to grow in wisdom, to reflect his glorious design back to him in how we live in his created order. There is an orchestration in God's creation design, that His image bearers should grow in wisdom, reflecting the wisdom of His design back to Him, as He has intended them to live with wisdom in His created order. And so, We, in our study last week, began unpacking this inspired poetry as wisdom, this attribute of God, is personified in this inspired poetry. And in this examination, we found the description of wisdom's actions as wisdom is represented to us here as a person. Wisdom is said to be crying out openly in the open squares and there in the places of power in the gates of the city. We understood that wisdom is in every place crying out to us. We need wisdom in all those places And with eyes made able to see and understanding to grasp, wisdom is accessible to us in those places where it is needed, from the lowest and least significant, in our general opinion, to the highest halls of power, as it were. We learn to measure as God measures and realize wisdom is needed in all those places, in every scope of life. Wisdom is crying out. We saw three parties described. Wisdom is crying out to the simple, to the scoffer, and to the fool. We considered how these are our natural condition in various measures, and we should respond appropriately to the call of wisdom as we see ignorance in ourselves, or as we detect a scoffing spirit that was not attentive, that in fact made ridicule our pursuit in any respect, and where we see that awful rebellion of the fool, where our heart is hardened and indisposed to the voice of wisdom. In any way that we find ourselves, with any hint of these things, we should respond appropriately. The simple may learn. When the simple is called, his ignorance may be remedied. The scoffer may repent, the fool may repent. We should be softened, especially since wisdom's crying out is with that loud voice that is joyful in its pursuit. It's not a grudging call. It's an earnest call with delight in itself. And so we're not being dragged by the ear. No, when wisdom calls, We may long for it and love it and pursue it, knowing that there is rejoicing in the reception of wisdom. Wisdom is calling us, we found in last week's section, calling us to turn at rebuke. We noted the ways wisdom might reprove us and how we ought to turn at such reproofs. He noted how we might be reproved through hardships that arise from a lack of wisdom, from poor judgment, from not having attended properly to the ways that God has called us to live, and a resulting hardship acts as a smarting reproof. Wisdom says, turn when those appointments arise. They are reproofs that should send you back to me. Wisdom calls us to turn at rebuke. Now here we should note that not every hardship in life is necessarily a reproof from some foolish decision or stubbornness in sin. Nevertheless, every hardship is an opportunity for growth in the ways of wisdom, for growth in the perfectly wise character of our Savior. And finally, we considered that gracious offer. Speaking of our Savior, the language sounds markedly redemptive here in the close of that section we studied last week. We are given encouragement to a right response to the reproofs of wisdom because what is held out to us is the filling of the spirit and the knowing of God's word. And we're not surprised that fulfilling the Spirit and the knowing of God's Word should sound so redemptive because, as we've mentioned before, Colossians 2 teaches us that in Christ we find one in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So to know wisdom as God intends we must know Christ savingly. And so we're not surprised that the language here takes on that redemptive, that gospel-sounding language. Now, the pursuit of wisdom, as lovely as it is presented, as eagerly as wisdom calls us, We're faced with a reality that the writer here, that Solomon puts before us, that's a painful reality. The natural response of fallen man does not find the call of wisdom lovely. The natural response of fallen man to the generous offers of God's wisdom is rather one of rejection. No matter how generous, no matter how plenteous that call is, we are naturally indisposed, and we need to be warned about that. And here we are given, in the passage before us this week, ample warning. Here again, The turn, it's startling. On the heels of the generous extension of this offer that will be filled with the Spirit. We'll know the word. What is the response? Well, wisdom says, because I have called and you refused. I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded. Because you disdained all my counsel and would have none of my rebuke. This is not what we would expect. We would hope for better, but we need to examine our hearts and acknowledge that our own disposition naturally left to ourselves is this disposition. Note how the rejection is described in the face of persistent calling refusal. Recall all the places where wisdom cries out with loud and positive appeals. Recall how frequently the reproofs of wisdom may call out to mankind, making visible through consequences all the judgments that fall on the foolish and the evildoer. We studied that back with the description of the highwayman, how absurd his pursuits are because he is destroying himself And when we see that destruction come, hear wisdom. Wisdom is calling out. Look at the destruction of those who refuse my call. But the natural response to this plenteous call is refusal. And that refusal, in the language, it's an utter refusal. It's not just. Eh, well, not right now. It's an adamant refusal. With the clearest redemptive tone, we hear these calls, not only in our life experiences, but in the pricking of conscience, in the ministry of the word, in wise counselors who advise us, we hear that call. How often have we refused those things? Perhaps we console ourselves with saying, well, it wasn't this utter refusal, but we're condemned with those who out of hand utterly refuse the call of wisdom. When we turn away from it, we're refusing it. And how abundantly it's manifest to us in the destruction we see, as we described, but even those wise counsels from the word, through our minister, from godly family and friends, in all these ways that wisdom is made manifest to us and we have turned from it, we refuse. And this is arrogant. This is wicked. This is hard-hearted. Wisdom is not just calling. Look how wisdom is said to stretch out the hand. Matthew Poole points out, it's not just, that this is more amplified, it's intended for us to understand that every effort is being made. That when the hand goes out, it's in case you couldn't hear me, I'm flagging you down. Wisdom stretches out the hand. Here is the way, here. In the face of that, no one regards That's painful to consider. No one regards. That's our natural disposition. Wisdom calls. Wisdom flags us down, extends the hands. There's refusal that's utter. No one will even consider it. The language of the stretching out of the hands. Again, we cannot escape the gospel saturation of these ideas. It's not surprising. Remember Colossians? Christ has all wisdom. If we are to find wisdom, it will be in Christ, and then we may be made fruitful human beings. So it is reasonable that we should recognize that this takes on redemptive import. Think of how God describes himself in Isaiah 65 at verse two. Hear this. I have stretched out my hands all day long to a rebellious people who walk in a way that is not good according to their own thoughts. Is that not the heart disposition that the writer of Proverbs describes here, Solomon points out, and that we know is our own hard heart left to ourselves? Again, we see how generous and abundant wisdom is, but how hard the heart and persistent the way of the ordinary response. No one regards. We should be concerned here deeply. It doesn't say, and just a lot of people don't pay attention. Solomon is making sure we understand this is how we all respond, left to ourselves. No one regards. All wisdom's counsel, we are told, isn't even considered, it's disdained. The word implies avoiding or ignoring it because it's just not worth paying attention to. A conscious dismissal as unworthy is what's in view here. You disdained all my counsel. Having nothing to do with wisdom's rebukes, not only disdaining the council as having no value, indeed something to be avoided, we're told that no one would heed the rebuke. Remember what we heard last week. That rebuke is a part of the call. And it's a part of the call that's made intense by the sharp pain of the rebuke, of the reproof. That is as though it had no effect whatsoever. So having nothing to do with the rebukes, far from turning at these rebukes as we were called to do, the natural heart makes nothing of them as though they were not even given. This rejection Solomon wants us to see, by the inspiration of the Spirit, this rejection is high-handed rebellion. We need to understand that this is the native condition of our heart. We see the emphasis here, and it is a complete rejection of wisdom. Well now, We have had this personification, wisdom describing this rejection for a reason. There are consequences. Note in verse 24 and 25, these are couched in the language of a reason. Because I have called and you refused. In other words, because I've stretched out my hand and no one regarded, because you disdained all my counsel and would have none of my rebuke. There are consequences to this natural disposition. with which we are overwhelmed and afflicted. All mankind is this way. What are those consequences? Well, let's run through them and let them sink in. Calamity. Don't let that word seem foreign. We're talking about utter disaster. that falls upon like a weight those who reject wisdom. Calamity. Terror. This is not just I'm a little bit afraid. The terror, the word described here is I'm trembling with fright. I'm so afraid I'm shaking all over. This is what awaits us naturally as those who pay no heed to wisdom. and similes are given. This terror of soul is like a storm coming that is so ferocious that it makes us shake. Now, draw, as the poetry calls us to do, draw upon recollections of such storms. Who among us, especially in this part of the country, hasn't experienced such a storm, where it sweeps in with such vigor and violence and lightning strikes so near that the air sizzles and the shock of the thunderclap takes you off your feet. This happens regularly in this area. This is the kind of calamity that our minds should understand is simply a hint, through poetic language, of what awaits us as a calamity for our hard-hearted, Neglect of wisdom. Destruction like a tempest. Think, as we've experienced here in this area, the tornadoes that swept through. Horrifying power of such a tempest. And the destruction that is wrought while we are reduced to utter helplessness. This is but a poetic hint of the consequence of the hard-hearted rejection that is natural to every one of us when wisdom calls. Indeed, the conclusion is that we are left, as it were, simply in a puddle of anguish and distress. But wisdom is up to something in describing these consequences to us. These will come as a judgment. And a part of that judgment is seen in wisdom's demeanor towards us. It is radically changed. When that time comes, when suddenly we're overwhelmed with the foolishness and destruction we have brought upon ourselves by our neglect of wisdom, by the hard-hearted refusal. Wisdom is no longer flagging us down. Wisdom is no longer extending the hand. Wisdom's no longer calling, heed my word. No, now, there is no comfort. Even the deepest of anguish has arrived. Now we long for it. Now it's no longer there. What do we find? Heaps on the just judgment we deserve. Wisdom now laughs. Where I was a scorner before, wisdom now scorns me. Because I sought vigorously that destruction that has now reduced me to anguish and utter hopeless distress. Where I mocked, wisdom now mocks me. Oh, how great is that anguish and how intensified it is. Because what was my only hope? has now become something unattainable that stands back and judges me. This is the sure and certain outcome of rejecting wisdom. All of us naturally are disposed to this response. So all of us may be certain in this life to whatever measure in God's providence, he appoints that kind of terror, calamity and destruction. and most assuredly in the next. In God's providence, did we not hear that in the reading from the New Testament? What was the rich man's situation? It's this. He's now in grave torment and he calls out, please, now I want help, if not for me, for another. There's nothing left. Utter, hopeless destruction. and wisdom's not done. We have arrived at the concluding text for this evening, this afternoon, but wisdom's not done declaring what judgment is coming. But praise God, we're not left there. Remember where we started. Where is wisdom found? It's found in Christ. And have we not had Christ extended to us for rescue? Yes, we have. And when we lay hold of him by faith, we're not left to be reduced to the puddle of well-deserved destruction, anguish, and distress. Consider the comfort that we had in Christ. If the poetry inspired by the Holy Spirit through Solomon, has moved us to feel, to sense, and all that precariousness, then let the same Holy Spirit comfort us in this. I want to turn to Matthew chapter eight. Turn with me if you will. Because we have a tempest that reduced men to terror. And Jesus is the sure comfort for those who are terrified. Matthew 8 at verse 23. A familiar pericope. Listen. Now when he got into a boat, his disciples followed him, and suddenly, A great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But he was asleep. Then his disciples came to him and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us, we are perishing. But he said to them, why are you fearful, O you of little faith? See, they had Christ. the relief of their terror. Then he arose and rebuked the wind and the sea, and there was a great calling. So the men marveled, saying, who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey him? We know who this is. This is the one in whom dwells all the treasures of wisdom and understanding. Is he your Lord? Then you have rescued from this disaster that is described. But having been rescued, clinging to Christ, our pursuit of wisdom is not over. No, indeed, it has just begun. And these then constitute warnings to us. We may now fly from them, to the place of rescue, Jesus Christ, the one who embodies all wisdom. And so, as we deserve naturally, because when we examine ourselves, we see that negligent spirit. We see what Solomon describes by the inspiration of the spirit, that tendency to refuse the counsel. I know better. We still have indwelling sin that needs to be purged, but we have rescue. We have the one who is wisdom, who will not let us go, who, when we find the tempest now reducing us to fear, we're not left to it. He does not stand far from us, mocking as we deserve. No, he says, your faith is weak. Do you not know who is with you? calms the storm. If we have Christ, we won't have that storm. We won't be reduced to the puddle of disaster and anguish. We have rescue and we will have what was promised ahead of this. We'll have the fullness of the spirit and the knowledge of his word. Let us then relish in the rescue that we have in Christ, and let us be warned what we deserve for the neglect of wisdom. Let that cause us to increase, not in the terror that reduces to anguish, but rather, let that cause us to increase in the fear of the Lord that moves us to love and respond to wisdom's outstretched hands. This is found in our Savior. whom we have in the full by faith. Let us call out to him. O Holy One of Israel, when you are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and we pray that we should be well warned by the words of Solomon, And so fly from our sinfulness to the one who can calm the tempest that we so richly deserve and strengthen our faith that by it we may lay hold of what is held out to us as wisdom. And so we entrust ourselves to the Savior of our souls to rescue us to the uttermost Make us wise unto salvation. We ask these things in the holy name. Amen.